The Vermillion meteorite is a

pallasite The pallasites are a Meteorite classification#Terminology, class of stony–iron meteorite. They are relatively rare, and can be distinguished by the presence of large olivine crystal inclusions in the ferro-nickel matrix. These crystals represe ...

( stony-iron) meteorite and one of two members of the

pyroxene pallasite grouplet The pyroxene pallasite grouplet is a subdivision of the pallasite meteorites ( stony-irons). The grouplet is named "pyroxene pallasites" because they are the only pallasites that contain pyroxene. The grouplet was proposed in 1995. It currently h ...

Discovery

The meteorite was found near and was named after

Vermillion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a modern ...

, Marshall County,

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. It was found by two farmers while planting on a grain field in 1991. It was recognized as a meteorite and first described in 1995.

Mineralogy

Vermillion meteorite consists of around 86volume-%

meteoric iron Meteoric iron, sometimes meteoritic iron, is a native metal and early-universe protoplanetary-disk remnant found in meteorites and made from the elements iron and nickel, mainly in the form of the mineral phases kamacite and taenite. Meteoric ...

and 14%

silicate minerals Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. In mineralogy, the crystalline forms of silica (silicon dio ...

. The silicates include

olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...

(93% of silicates),

orthopyroxene The pyroxenes (commonly abbreviated Px) are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. Pyroxenes have the general formula , where X represents ions of calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), iron (Fe( ...

(5%),

chromite Chromite is a crystalline mineral composed primarily of iron(II) oxide and chromium(III) oxide compounds. It can be represented by the chemical formula of Iron, FeChromium, Cr2Oxygen, O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. The ...

(1.5%) and

merrillite Merrillite is a calcium phosphate mineral with the chemical formula Ca9NaMg(PO4)7. It is an anhydrous, sodium-rich member of the merrillite ''group'' of minerals. Mineral species, sub-group and group Merrillite is a distinct ''mineral species'' b ...

(0.5%). Other accessory minerals include

troilite Troilite () is a rare iron sulfide mineral with the simple formula of FeS. It is the iron-rich endmember of the pyrrhotite group. Pyrrhotite has the formula Fe(1−x)S (x = 0 to 0.2) which is iron deficient. As troilite lacks the iron deficiency ...

whitlockite Whitlockite is a mineral, an unusual form of calcium phosphate. Its formula is Ca9(Mg Fe)(PO4)6PO3O H. It is a relatively rare mineral but is found in granitic pegmatites, phosphate rock deposits, guano caves and in chondrite meteorites. It was f ...

, and

cohenite Cohenite is a naturally occurring iron carbide mineral with the chemical structure ( Fe, Ni, Co)3 C. This forms a hard, shiny, silver mineral which was named by E. Weinschenk in 1889 after the German mineralogist Emil Cohen, who first describe ...

Classification

The Vermillion meteorite is classified as a pyroxene pallasite because it contains pyroxene as an accessory mineral and shares a distinct

oxygen isotope There are three known stable isotopes of oxygen (8O): , , and . Radioactive isotopes ranging from to have also been characterized, all short-lived. The longest-lived radioisotope is with a half-life of , while the shortest-lived isotope is ...

signature with Yamato 8451. Some studies also object to this grouping, referring to the differences in siderophile

trace element __NOTOC__ A trace element is a chemical element of a minute quantity, a trace amount, especially used in referring to a micronutrient, but is also used to refer to minor elements in the composition of a rock, or other chemical substance. In nutr ...

s and the occurrence of cohenite in the Vermillion meteorite.

References

{{Meteorites by name Stony-iron meteorites Meteorites found in the United States Geology of Kansas

Discovery

Mineralogy

Classification

See also

References